Newsbriefs:
Florida
Grand
Jury
Recommends
More
of
the
Same
Drug
War
Policies,
Polk
County
Commissioners
Race
to
be
Tested
12/22/00
A statewide grand jury, empanelled in September 1999 with a mandate to assess Florida's drug enforcement and treatment efforts, issued a report with its findings on December 14th. For the most part, the grand jury's recommendations ignored innovative approaches; instead many of the suggested fixes, especially on the enforcement side, amount to throwing more money at an intractable problem. The jurors called for a new entity, a Miami River Authority, to target drug trafficking on what it called "a free entryway for illegal drugs into our state." Such an entity would join a plethora of federal, state, and local agencies, police forces, and joint task forces already working the port of Miami. The report called for increased state and federal spending on enforcement, singling out increased funds for the National Guard and for a state drug intelligence center to coordinate Florida's drug war. It also recommended increased use of drug-sniffing dogs by the Florida Highway Patrol and the state prison system. The grand jurors called drug dogs "a cost-effective, non-intrusive, and reliable" method of finding drugs. The grand jury's central message to state political leaders was if you want to play, you have to pay. "Public lip service won't do," the report said, "action is essential and resources are the key." The grand jurors helpfully suggested some funding sources other than taxpayer dollars. They recommended the state look into how to tax illegal drug sales without forcing individuals to incriminate themselves; advocated the use of increasingly controversial asset forfeiture as a funding tool; and called for stepped-up collection of fines imposed on convicted drug dealers. And, the jurors suggested, the state could save money by barring defense attorneys from requesting pretrial depositions of witnesses, particularly police officers, who, the jurors said, would better serve the public on patrol than in court. The grand jurors did not spend all their energy cooking up questionable new enforcement ideas. They called for increased funding for drug treatment, for drug education to be expanded to middle and high schools, and for insurance coverage for drug addiction. The grand jurors wrote that the state should set the example by requiring such coverage in its pending insurance contract for state employees. Meanwhile, in a sign that Florida's miasmic swamp gases have affected not only voters or vote-counters (depending on your political persuasion), and grand jurors, county commissioners in central Polk County got into a brouhaha over who was most eager to submit to drug testing. Commissioner Don Gifford sparked the tempest in a specimen cup last week when he told reporters if county employees have to take "intrusive" drug tests, so should commissioners. County employees in safety-sensitive positions are subject to random drug tests, and all new employees must pass drug tests. Three of the commissioners have now been tested, with Commissioner Jack Myers proudly being the first one through the bathroom door. Commission Chairman Neil Combee was disappointed. "Dadgummit," he told the Ledger (Lakeland), "I wanted to be first." The commissioners' solidarity with county employees only goes so far, however. While employees face sanctions up to termination for a positive drug test, the commissioners face nothing. "County administration has no authority over them like we do over line employees," Polk County Administrative Services Director Jim Freeman told the Ledger. "We're just going to hand the results back to them."
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
